In 2011, a new NSF-funded petascale computing system, Blue Waters, will go online at the
University of Illinois. The goal of this facility is to open up new possibilities in science and
engineering by providing computational capability that makes it possible for investigators to
tackle much larger and more complex research challenges across a wide spectrum of domains. The
purpose of this solicitation is to invite research groups that have a compelling science or
engineering challenge that will require petascale computing resources to submit requests for
allocations of resources on the Blue Waters system. Proposers must be prepared to demonstrate that
they have a science or engineering research problem that requires and can effectively exploit the
petascale computing capabilities offered by Blue Waters. Proposals from or including junior
researchers are encouraged as one of the goals of this solicitation is to build a community
capable of using petascale computing.